As strange as it is
by Arisces
Summary: 'As strange as it is, I fell in love with you.' A story about friendship, accepting change, growing up and finding that one person that makes you feel infinite. Characters from seasons 1, 2 and others included. Multiple pairings.
1. Chapter 1

_SUMMARY: As strange as it is, I fell in love with you. _A story of friendship, accepting change, growing up, and finding that one person that can make you feel infinite. Multiple pairings.

Sora shielded her eyes away from the bright rays of sunshine that dared to blind her as she scattered her canvas bag in search of her bottle of water.

"Where did I put it?" She muttered, frustrated. Sora had never been much of an organized person, her room, among other things, being proof of that. She couldn't recall how many times she had been late for practice or a social event because of her messy schedule. "Aha!" She exclaimed, getting her hands on the item she had been looking for. Throwing her head back, Sora gulped the water out of the bottle until it was empty.

"Takenouchi, practice is over! You can head on home." The Coach called from across the tennis field. "You did great!"

Sora smiled gratefully at the older woman, waving a very sweaty arm in the air. "Thanks Coach! See you tomorrow!"

It was a hot, sunny Sunday afternoon and Sora had been stuck in practice for over three hours. Not that she was complaining, if anything she wouldn't rather spend her afternoon doing anything else. Tennis was definitely her favorite activity.

The red head threw her bottle back into the bag and grabbed a rubber band in order to pull her wet hair up into a ponytail. She packed the rest of her things and set her bag on her shoulder, ready to head on home. She smiled, a faint blush creeping on her cheeks as she remembered that she'd spend the rest of the evening with the one person in the world who made her heart beat faster than it normally should. Sora had never been one to gush over boys, she was no Mimi. But when it came to this one boy in particular, she couldn't control herself. So far, the seventeen year old's day was going smoothly.

She began to exit the court when she heard someone call her name. She turned the other way, only to find Takeru Takahashi waking up towards her with his famous smile plastered on his face.

"Hey!" Sora shouted, waiting for the younger boy to catch up. Takeru's blonde hair was seemingly messed up and he had a towel hanging from around his neck. Sora had forgotten that the sophomore basketball team practiced around the same time as the Senior Tennis team did. If she had known, she would've gone over to say hi. It had certainly been a while since she's seen the younger blond.

"I take it you just got done with practice?" Sora asked once he had reached her.

"Yeah. How was yours?" Takeru asked with his signature radiant smile.

The two teenagers walked together, exiting the school grounds. "It was great, I think I'm getting better."

"Isn't that the point of practice? To get better?"

Sora smiled, playfully punching Takeru's side. It had been a while since Sora had spoken with the younger generation, let alone had an actual conversation with any of them. Lately the older kids had been busy with things like college applications, exams, school, band practice and sports. Their schedules had all been so busy lately, they couldn't make time to really get together. Sora had absolutely no idea what was going on in Takeru's life.

"So, how are things with you and Hika?" Sora asked. Last time she checked, Takeru and Tai's younger sister were in a relationship and it was getting serious.

Once the brunette's name was mentioned, Takeru twitched. Sora instantly regretted asking, thinking that she brought up something that was long over. "It's good, it's going good."

Confused, the older girl decided to dig for more answers. "Why does it seem like it's not going as good as you say it is?"

Takeru let out a sigh, scratching the back of his head like he usually did when he was anxious. Sora hadn't forgotten his quirks. "It's just weird dating your best friend, you know?"

Sora smiled, she knew exactly what he meant. "Yeah, but it's worth it, right?"

"I guess. I mean, I really like her. A lot. And I'm always afraid that this might go downhill and I'll end up losing her."

"Well, if you really like her as much as you say you do..-"

"I do, I really do."

"Then it's worth the risk." Sora continued, patting the younger blond on the back.

Takeru chuckled, wrapping a friendly arm around his old friend. "I've missed you, Sora."

"I've missed you too, 'Keru. All of you, to be honest." Sora said softly, remembering all the good times the entire gang had had together. "Even Davis."

Takeru laughed, "Good ol' Davis."

"Is he still as obsessed with Kari as he's always been?"

The blond shook his head with a smile. "Nah, he's backed off. He's not going to risk our friendship over a girl." His reply came as a surprise to Sora, as Takeru and Davis had never really been the best of friends. She laughed, recalling the times where the two of them would butt heads over Hikari, competing for her attention. Eventually, Takeru got the longer end of the stick and ended up winning the tiny brunette's heart. Davis was pretty upset by the news when he first heard, even cutting off the pair for a few weeks. It turned out that Davis's feelings for Hikari surpassed a school crush. Apparently, Davis had moved passed his anger and decided to forgive both Takeru and Hikari and given them his blessings.

"But she's not just any girl, Is she now?" Sora teased. A knowing smile, much like the one Sora secretly had earlier crept up on the blond's face. "No, she most definitely isn't."

The two continued walking, chatting about random subjects, such as movies they've recently seen and gossip they've heard. Both their conversation and walk came to an abrupt spot once they reached their destination.

"Well, this is my place." Takeru smiled, getting ready to say his goodbye.

"This is my stop, too."

Takeru gave the red head a confused look, until he realized why she was really there. "Oh! Are you gonna hang out with Matt?"

Sora nodded, climbing the steps up to the apartment building door. "Yeah, we were gonna watch a movie. He made dinner, too."

Takeru smirked, he had almost forgotten that Sora and his brother had been dating for almost two months now. He hadn't been really that caught up on his brother's life, lately. "Well, don't worry. I have a lot of homework to do so I won't bother you guys."

Then there it was again, that same faint blush appeared her cheeks, and this time it brought a stomach full of butterflies along with it. The good kind. She tried to hide her enthusiasm from the younger blond, but it was too hard knowing that in a while she'd be with _him_.

Clearing her throat and standing up straight, Sora gave Takeru a serious look. "You won't be disturbing us at all, 'Keru."

With a chuckle and a pat on Sora's back, Takeru held open the elevator door and lightly pushed the redhead inside. "Right, we'll see about that."

* * *

Groaning, Mimi Tachikawa threw her pencil across the room in severe frustration. "Why the hell is this so hard?" She yelled, staring at the paper that layed in front of her. "I've got nothing!"

"Don't look at me, I'm just as lost as you are." A voice chipped in from behind her. Mimi turned to face Tai Kamiya, who was laying on her bed with the same sheet of homework in his hands. "But then again, it's only numbers with a few letters here and there, so I don't think we should sue."

Mimi smiled, he always knew how to make her feel better when she was having a hard time. It was one of her favorite qualities about him, only one of them. A whole day wouldn't be enough time for her to list the things he does that makes her heart skip a beat everytime he does them. No, 24 hours wouldn't even be enough for her to think about how much she adores the messy haired brunette. She pushed the Algebra sheet away, mentally giving herself a reminder to call Izzy later and ask for help. Right now, she had only one thought going through her mind and that had nothing to do with letters or numbers. She winked at the boy laying on her bed and motioned for him to come over to her, to which he easily complied.

"You know, I'm not really in a homework kind of mood right now." She whispered in his ear.

"What a coincidence, I was just thinking the same thing." He replied, Picking her right up off of the ground and seating her on the desk so that she was face to face with the soccer player. He had always been so much taller than she was. Mimi giggled, running her hands through his hair and grabbing his shirt collar to pull him in. Their lips met, and they shared a passionate kiss. As they kissed, Tai's fingers silently sneaked to the bottom of Mimi's shirt in an attempt to get rid of it. The strawberry blonde sixteen year old caught him in the act, breaking their lip lock to remove his hands from where they shouldn't be. She teasingly shook her head, inching closer to his face. "I'd rather we didn't, my parents are going to be home any minute now."

Clearly unshaken by her warning, Tai leaned closer and left kisses all over her jaw line. "We've been quicker" He whispered.

Mimi laughed, playfully pushing the boy off of her. "I'm in no mood for a quickee, mister." Jumping off the desk, she grabbed her homework and skipped over to the bed. "If you're gonna do something, you should _at least _take your time doing it."

Tai smirked, running a head through his big, messy hair. "You can't promise a guy something and not give it to him!" He pouted, walking over to the small framed girl. "I was really looking forward to the rest of the evening a few minutes ago.."

Mimi tilted her head, taking the time to appreciate the figure standing in front of her. Over the years, Tai had gone from the skinny, soccer obsessed young boy that he was to a built, star player with a six pack to die for. With the same boyish charm and amazing sense of humor he had always been blessed with, Tai was quite popular among the ladies.

"Maybe some other time, big boy." Mimi laughed, grabbing her phone and looking up Izzy in her address book.


	2. Mad World

_'I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad. _

_the dreams in which I'm dyin' are the best I've ever had._

_I find it hard to tell you 'cause I find it hard to take_

_When people run in circles it's a very, very_

_Mad world'_

_-Mad World, Tears for fears._

Out of the corner of his eye, Davis watched Takeru and Hikari, famously dubbed _Takari _by the other students due to them being inseparable, cuddle on the bleachers. They were there to watch his soccer practice and support him. But much to his dismay, he truthfully wished that they weren't. In reality, he wished that he had never met the duo in the first place. Because up until now, all they had done was bring him pain. He could pretend to be okay with their relationship all he wanted, but everytime they kissed, everytime they hugged, everytime they showed up together, it hurt Davis's heart in a way that he wished he never had to feel. He was never okay with the fact that the one girl he had ever loved rejected him, no matter how lovingly and sweetly she did it. But for the sake of his friendship with the two, he was forced to accept the fact that he might not ever be with her.

Hikari waved at the brunette and Takeru gave him a thumbs up, mouthing 'good luck' to his friend. Davis gave them a cheeky smile and held two thumbs up as he ran over to the field. As much as he despised their relationship, he valued their friendship even more. Takeru was like a shining beacon of hope, he never failed to make his friends feel better if they were having a bad day. He supported them no matter what they chose to do and would be their shoulder to cry on if they needed one. Davis might have had his bad days with the blonde, but he never doubted how much of a great friend he could be when he let him be one. To Davis, Hikari was an entire different story and situation. She was just a delight to be around. She brought light to the room, she made you happy. She made _Davis _happy, no matter what she did. She was _special. _In his eyes she was perfect. He could find nothing wrong with her, not one flaw no matter what she did. But sadly, she didn't seem to feel the same way about him. Sure, she loved him. But Hikari loved everyone. She just couldn't hate, she wasn't capable of having resentment in her heart. He was grateful that she loved him the way she did, but she didn't love him the way he loved her. She didn't love him the way she loved _Takeru_. And that would keep him awake hours through the night at times..

The coach blew on his whistle, signaling the start of practice. Davis sighed, pushing away his thoughts for now.

* * *

Mimi pursed her lips, gently taping the tip of her pencil against the table surface. Shifting her eyes, she concentrated on the paper before her, trying to recall how to answer the equation on the sheet - Izzy had just explained it to her a few minutes ago. With a sigh, the strawberry blonde dropped her pencil and rolled her eyes. None of it made sense to her, algebra would always be her weakest subject and she never seemed to be able to get any better at it no matter what she tried. But she had to try her hardest. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, her dad's voice echoing through her mind. _If you fail again, I'm going to send you to live with your aunt back in New York. I'm tired of your inability to do well at school, maybe being far away and being cut of will teach you a thing or two. _She hadn't told anyone about her father's threats, she nerve talked about her family or home life. It wasn't something she was comfortable speaking about, no matter how close she was to anyone.

"Mimi?" Izzy called, bringing her back to reality. "Come on, it's not that hard. I'll help you out." He offered, grabbing a hold of her sheet. For over an hour, the pair sat in the library and studied - or attempted to. Mimi's concentration was very short, one minute she'd be focused, the next she'll be staring at the chair infront of her, completely zoned out. But Izzy never gave up, trying again and again to help her out. She just never listened.

Mimi sighed even louder, scooting over to the red headed genius beside her. Placing a gentle hand on his arm, she smiled. "Thanks Izzy, you're the best. I don't know what I would do without you."

Izzy blushed. He lowered his gaze and concentrated on answering the problems in front of him. "Y-Yeah, no problem, Meems. You know I'm here for you."

"You're a great friend, you really are."

_Friend. _The word was like a knife stabbing him over and over right into his heart. As grateful as he was that he was able to mean so much as a friend to Mimi, he wanted to be more. Why couldn't she see how hard he fell for her? He must have gotten too good at hiding it. "Thanks, Meems." He mumbled, almost too low for her to hear him. He tried to ignore the hand placed on his arm, but it was physically and mentally impossible. He pulled his sleeve up and wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his free hand. That's what happened when he got too close to her, he would start sweating even if it was the coldest day of the year. He'd lose focus and his words would start to not make sense anymore. Nothing made sense when he was with her. He was a geek - a nerd. He spent his free time studying and finishing the rest of the semester's homework before it was even assigned. He was skinny, almost boney. His red hair stuck up in all the wrong places, making it as shaggy as possible. He never knew how to dress, his mother still helped him pick out what to wear every morning. It blew his mind at times how easy it was for him to fall in love with her more and more each day. One day, he'd have the courage to tell her. But he knew that it was impossible - completely impossible for her to ever feel exactly the same way he felt about her. Because even if she did feel a certain way towards him, it would never compare to the feeling he got and the happiness she brought to him.

"So, how's it going?" He asked, with a nervous smile. "What's up?" He asked again, mentally giving himself a wedgie. _There was no need to ask twice, boy-genius._

"Oh, nothing really. Everyone is so busy these days, no one really has time to hang out anymore." She replied, biting her lip. "I haven't seen anyone in the past few days, really." She always bit her lip when she lied.

Izzy raised a ginger eyebrow, Mimi was biting her lip. He knew her inside and out, he could tell she was lying. _But why would she lie about something like that? _

"Oh? Neither have I, really. Except for the younger kids. I usually watch Takeru practice after school."

Mimi pouted "I feel guilty about that, I haven't talked to any of them in a while." She leaned closer, hovering over Izzy as he worked. "I miss them, actually."

Izzy tried his best to avoid looking up, trying to concentrate as much as he could on algebra. But unfortunately, it wasn't easy to ignore someone like Mimi. "Yeah, I was thinking that maybe we could all spend spring break together - you know, bond?"

Mimi's eyes grew wide and her lips curled into a sly smile. "Izzy, you're a genius." She exclaimed, pulling out her phone immediately.

* * *

Davis stuffed the last piece of meatloaf into his already full mouth. He looked down at his now empty plate and sighed, wishing that it could magically fill up with all of his favorite foods. Licking the flavour off of his fingers, he reminded himself that life wasn't that easy.

"Are you done inhaling your food?" Yolei asked from across the table with a hand over her eyes. "Can I look now?"

Davis gave the purple haired girl a sarcastic smile - one that she couldn't see - and managed to blurt out a _yes _from his full mouth. giggling, Hikari reached over and lended the soccer player a napkin. "Don't talk with your mouth full, silly." She said, receiving a cheeky smile in return.

"So did you guys hear?" Yolei asked, picking at the meatloaf infront of her. When she was younger, she always thought that the story about how the school's cafeteria's food always tasted terrible was just a cliché. When she actually got to high school, she realised how wrong she was. She winced, remembering some of the absurd affects the food had had on her before.

"Hear what?"

Yolei swallowed a hard, cold piece of meatloaf and instantly regretted it. She pushed the plate aside, over to Davis, who gratefully accepted her offer with a hungry look on his face. "There's an exchange student coming to school." She replied, focusing on Hikari in attempt to avoid watching Davis devour the food _again. _Then again, she had no one to blame but herself. She's the one who supplied the monster with more.

"Oh, that's cool." Hikari said, turning her focus to her boyfriend seated beside her. "Did you hear that, Takeru?" She asked. But Takeru's mind was somewhere else.

Hikari followed his gaze until her eyes rested on what he had been looking at. There he stood, a few tables away. She watched her older brother Tai flirt with a blonde, ditzy girl. The way they were flirting was a bit too close for comfort. Hikari looked away and wrinkled her nose in disgust. She knew that her brother had been _around_, but she didn't want to watch it. "It's disgusting, ever since him and Mimi broke up that's all we've seen." She groaned.

"Yeah, I feel kind of bad for him." Takeru added, peeling his eyes off of the sight of Taichi and the blonde ditz. He remembered back when his girlfriend's older brother and Mimi were a couple. They were in love alright, but it was a bitter-sweet romance. Despite their love for each other, something never failed to tear between them. The fights, the jealousy, the grudges and the broken trust. Eventually, they figured that if they didn't stop when they did, their feelings for each other would cause a strain in their friendship, one that was not easily repaired. Preferring not to lose one another, they both ended it on good terms, promising to forget the past and not let how each of them acted while in the relationship define them later on. But ever since the two of them broke up, Tai has jumped from one girl to another. He'd made it through the cheer squad, the girl's volleyball team and every female on the school council. He was worried about him, and he knew that both Hikari and Matt were as well. "Have you talked to him about it?"

Hikari shook her head as she stared at her frozen meatloaf. "No, I've opted to stay out of it." she muttered. "Change of subject, please?"

Takeru nodded, smiling and wrapping an arm around his girlfriend. He watched her, taking in how beautiful she looked to him. Leaning his head against hers, he played with the strands of her hair. "So what about this new exchange student?" He wondered.

"Supposedly, she's from France. I wonder if you know her, 'Keru." Yolei offered.

Takeru chuckled, "Just because I spent a summer in France with my grandfather doesn't mean that I know everyone from there, Yolei." He noted, breaking away from Hikari and settling in his seat.

"True."

Across the cafeteria, Sora and Matt walked in hand in hand. They had both just finished classes for the day and had agreed to meet there with Mimi. Supposedly, she had some big idea she wanted to share with everyone. _Everyone. _Matt wrapped an arm around Sora's shoulders and the red head leaned her head on the blonde's shoulder. She licked her lips, suddenly aware of all the people watching them. Girls across the cafeteria eyed her, she even spotted some pointing. She knew that ever since she started dating Matt, she'd become more and more unpopular among the school's female population. If high school were a sea, Matt would be the rarest fish in it. "Hey, there's my brother." Matt said, noticing Takeru and his friends seated at their usual lunch table. Sora smiled, just the chance she'd been looking for. She'd been trying to find a way to spend some time with the younger teens, hoping to run into them at any chance. Eagerly, Sora yanked her boyfriend's hand and marched towards the table in the middle of the cafeteria. Sora and Matt took a seat next to the others, startling them. "Hey guys, it's been a while." She said, looking around.

Yolei beamed, happy to see one of her role models. "Hey Sora, Matt! Long time no see. I've missed you guys."

Sora nodded, reaching over to pat Yolei on the back. "You too, Yolei."

"Did you guys get Mimi's message? She said that she wanted to meet us here." Taichi said, walking over to the table. Hikari eyed the blonde he had been flirting with. She was now by the doors, flirting with yet another soccer player. It seemed that _she _had been making _her _way through the soccer team.

"Yeah. She's not here yet." Hikari noted, avoiding her brother's gaze. Taichi arched an eyebrow, dumbfounded by his sister's cold behaviour. He wondered if she was upset with him. Almost on cue, Mimi and Izzy raced through the cafeteria doors (Something that would play on Taichi's mind later.) Holding a tight grip on the redheaded genius' hand, she almost sped towards the table everyone else had been seated at with an excited, enthusiastic look on her face. Her short, silky skirt flew as she ran, catching the attention of many of the males seated in the cafeteria. She even earned herself a few whistles.

Takeru's lips curled into a smile, seeing how sweaty and nervous Izzy seemed having Mimi's grip on his hand. Being one of the only two people who knew of Izzy's love for the girl, he couldn't help but feel ambiguously sorry for the guy. "So what is it that you wanted to talk to us about, Meems?" Hikari asked once the duo had been seated.

"I have a great idea." She exclaimed, tightening her grip even more on Izzy's hand. She had not let it go yet, even after being seated.

"Oh, dear god no." Tai joked, rolling his eyes. Mimi punched him in the arm, as hard as a one-hundred-and-ten pound girl could. "Didn't feel it."

Ignoring the jock seated by her, Mimi continued. "Okay, guess what?" She asked.

"What?"

"We're all going to spend spring break together at my Dad's cabin."

* * *

_**A/N: mahwish1, blueberrykisses, koumi-locc, thanks for the reviews. I'd like to clear something up, I'm using the original japaneese names, with the english dub names serving as merely nicknames. R&R!**_


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